Bharti Airtel adds most active users in June

Bharti Airtel Ltd. beat Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. in adding the most active users among peers after four months, firming up its position as the largest operator by the number of subscribers who regularly recharge their phones.

The Sunil Mittal-controlled carrier added 24.3 lakh active users in June compared with its six-month average of 30 lakh, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Still, the total number of paying users added by Bharti Airtel between March and June stood at 42 lakh against a net 1.6 crore roped in by Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture — that added active subscribers for the fourth straight month.

Debt-laden Vodafone Idea Ltd. lost active users for more than a year

-Active subscriber base-
The active subscriber base of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio rose 0.71% each over the preceding month in June, while that of Vodafone Idea’s fell 1.98%.

Active subscriber base (June 2021):

• Bharti Airtel: 34.37 crore
• Vodafone Idea: 24.17 crore
• Reliance Jio: 34.04 crore

-Active subscriber market share-
Bharti Airtel’s active subscriber market share improved 29 basis points over the previous month in June.

After deteriorating in January and February, Reliance Jio has been witnessing a rise in active market share since March. Vodafone Idea, however, continued to lose.

-Gross user addition-
The telecom industry added 39.9 lakh gross subscribers in June 2021 after losing 62.7 lakh users in May.

Reliance Jio added 1.4 times more gross subscribers than Bharti Airtel in June. Reliance Jio added more such users than Bharti Airtel for the fifth straight month.

Vodafone Idea lost the highest gross subscribers since December 2020. In the 12 months through June 2021, the company has lost more than 3.17 crore gross users.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio saw their gross subscriber base rise 1.1% and 1.3% over the preceding month, respectively, in June 2021. Vodafone Idea’s gross subscriber base fell 1.5%.

Gross subscriber base (June 2021):

• Bharti Airtel: 35.21 crore
• Vodafone Idea: 27.33 crore
• Reliance Jio: 43.67 crore

-Industry active subscribers-
Indian telecom industry’s active subscribers declined for the second straight month in June. The sector lost 13.2 lakh paying users compared with the six-month average net addition of 29.48 lakh.

-Inactive subscribers-
Bharti Airtel’s inactive user count increased for the second straight month, while that of Reliance Jio’s rose for the sixth month. Vodafone Idea’s inactive subscriber base widened for the fifth month in a row after narrowing from October 2020 to January 2021. BloombergQuint